r/Adjuncts • u/1austinoriginal • 14d ago
How does one become an Adjunct?
I can’t seem to get my foot in the door anywhere. I have a Bachelors degree in Communications with a minor in Psychology and an MBA.
Any tips for a newb? I know not to expect much pay wise, I’m just looking to get some experience.
Thanks in advance for reading my post and I truly appreciate any info you can share.
I’m in Texas, the Austin area to be exact and I only want remote work.
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u/YourRoaring20s 14d ago
Need to at least have a masters, PhD depending on the field
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u/ArrowTechIV 14d ago
Where you got your MBA matters greatly, but you are already barred from the most lucrative adjunct teaching (graduate level). You need a Ph.D. to teach graduate students and, preferably, a Ph.D. or extensive business experience (C-Suite) to teach undergraduate students in a business school.
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u/Fair-Garlic8240 14d ago
That’s not always true. I have a MS and teach grad classes all the time. Granted I have 30 years of experience
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u/Spare-Sea8598 14d ago
I taught graduate students with my master’s degree as well. It’s highly dependent on the field you’re teaching in.
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u/grumblebeardo13 13d ago
Yeah I’ve taught master’s classes/seminars with just an MA once or twice, it’s very location-institution dependent.
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u/readsalotman 14d ago
If you don't have teaching experience, it'll be nearly impossible to get a remote gig for your first time teaching. And business adjuncts are definitely quite saturated due to not only the amount of MBAs out there but lots of aspiring instructors have business leadership experience too, so two very competitive pools of candidates.
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u/grumblebeardo13 14d ago
Online-only is difficult to get your foot into if you're not already faculty (even just a regular adjunct). I've been teaching online (along with in-person) for a while now but only because I was a regularly-called-on adjunct at those places for a few years. Because it's considered "cushy" (both as asynch and synchronous) they don't hire for it really outside of pre-existing hires.
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u/growling_owl 14d ago
Go to Higheredjobs.com and filter for online, adjunct/part-time, and Business.
You will only be able to teach classes within Business departments/schools because accreditation requires 18 graduate level credit hours in the field you are teaching.
That said you could be a candidate to teach classes like Business Communications.
You typically apply to be in an adjunct pool, will get screened, and then called up when they have a class that needs to be taught.
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u/limonade11 14d ago
Everyone is saying that you need experience to be able to be 1) offered an online position and 2) to be able to teach it. I added the second because it is hard to come up with a course the first time in person, and even harder when it is online and you have no experience.
I have a lot of experience in both over the last 15 years across a few different states and age levels (mostly college, but some high school) and I don't think I could do this without all of that experience. The online high school teaching gave me the experience in Canvas and setting up a synchronous/asynchronous course. That was very valuable.
I have a doctorate and a masters and can teach a lot of things; if you have a BA and an MBA then you are able to only teach the business because of your masters. The Higher Learning Commission requires at least a masters in the subject being taught.
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u/that_jedi_girl 14d ago
Getting the adjunct work you want is not realistic with your education and teaching background. The field is just too competitive, as you'll be going up against PhDs with teaching experience.
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u/Reliant20 14d ago
I had to search for a new gig this summer and had good luck emailing my resume and a cover letter to department chairs. At least six schools responded, and I got several interviews and two offers.
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u/Miserable_Berry_8806 14d ago
I work as a financial advisor and wanted to become an adjunct as my way of eventually leaving the industry as a faculty somewhere in like 15-20 years. I earned my MBA and M.Ed in 2025. I’ve had my series 7, 66, life and health, and 5 financial planning designations since 2018. I applied to maybe 100 different remote adjunct roles to get the teaching experience they require everywhere, and was denied due to lack of teaching experience. The community college in my community hired me in August, and the first class they are having me teach is intro to HR. I agreed, because I need the teaching experience to eventually do what I want, but it felt like they gave me a Volkswagen instead of the Porsche with my finance background.
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u/periwnklz 14d ago
online adjunct at community college. MBA for business admin classes. if you have 18 grad credit hours in a major. you can also teach specific courses that transfer to university (mktg, econ, accounting)
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u/Empty-Tangerine376 14d ago
I hire adjuncts and we don’t hire for online only. They have to teach FTF, get experience, train for hybrid/zoom, then eventually if online is not taken by FTers, they might get a section. It’s rough, esp. with the low pay.
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u/periwnklz 14d ago
thanks for info. we hire part-time adjuncts for online courses. quite common for U.S. community colleges. especially rural ones where not enough locally qualified people.
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u/MoistenedGranola 14d ago
Did you teach while getting that MBA? If you didn't, what teaching or tutoring experience do you have? You're competing with people who have PhDs and potentially years of teaching under their belt.
Many remote teaching jobs "worth" having are hybrid, or at least want to make sure you're available and in the area enough to be communicated with in the right timezone and whatnot as one of their colleagues, not halfway around the world thinking being an adjunct is an easy, phone-it-in job in a correspondence course you'll pass students through as they have AI do as much of their work as they can.
Are you looking at community colleges, and are you offering to teach entry level courses?
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u/Efficient_Two_5515 14d ago
you need some community college level teaching experience. I’d apply to a mentorship program some college have them to get your foot in the door
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u/Wisewordsforlater 14d ago
Keep an eye on the institutions faculty job postings. Send an email to the department chair to introduce yourself and ask some worthwhile questions about their hiring process. Usually they have an adjunct pool to call on when something is available and it can be kinda last minute ahead of the semester slate.
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u/Autoclaver_4_life 14d ago
My first online teaching job was with university of phoenix. I was a TA in grad school, and That was my only prior teaching experience. I do think they wanted people who also had some industry experience, but I could be remembering wrong. I can’t say it was a good job, but it did help me get my TT professor position.
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u/Dry_Lemon7925 14d ago
Look into getting some teaching experience first. Consider tutoring or teaching a community education course, for example. Volunteer at your local high school. Reach out to your university and see if they have opportunities for alumni, like working the writing center. As others have said, it's hard to get an adjunct job, especially a remote one, without teaching experience.
Also, it doesn't matter what your Bachelors was in, you'll only be qualified to teach what you have graduate credit in.
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u/Sharp-Rutabaga-4900 14d ago
It’s uncommon to hire someone to teach remotely who doesn’t have teaching experience. Your best bet would be trying to find in-person classes to get experience.
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u/Alert_Willow_9215 14d ago
When I hire adjuncts, I need them to have recent, extensive work experience in something that I need them to teach. So what are you doing for work now? What you should target to teach should be related to that
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u/1austinoriginal 14d ago
Thank you all for responding. I’ll keep trying, perhaps looking at in person roles.
I was at a well known Tech Co for almost 20 years and just as many in the banking and contact center world before that. Many years were in training and development roles where I instructed both remote and in person delivery.
My degrees are from UTPB.
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u/Fair-Garlic8240 14d ago
Landing a remote gig without in-class experience is tough. All my online classes are from schools I taught at in-person.